SPOILER ALERT Hallmarked Man (Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott)

[Civilservant]

Spoiler thread for posters who have read or listened to The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith (J K Rowling) and would like to discuss it!

All I want is for those two to finally get together and consummate their lust for one another. They're beginning to look a little silly. And I trust that JRR will have an awesome concluding novel.

On the Robin's friends thing, I get why her own social circle is so small in London, but I'm relistening to Lethal White and there's no mention of who her bridesmaids were, just Matthew's toddler niece and a reference to green chiffon dresses. Her cousin Katie would have been a BM if her baby hadn't been due that day, but in all the hubbub and drama, she didn't have even one woman friend close enough to be named.

I think the rape ruined a lot of her friendships. She would have lost any friends she made at university and then retreated- she only had Matthew.

I don’t recall Ryan Murphy’s wife having cheated on him.

It’d be great if Wardle expanded on the rumours about Ryan and/or Robin encountered Ryan’s ex!

I finished reading Lethal White over the weekend, and it does seem strange that Robin is so relatively isolated, compared to the later books where she has both Ilse and Prudence to talk to. It’s true at this stage she has Veronica, but she’s primarily a work friend, though wonderfully supportive. (Hmm … I’m realising that both of the other two are Strike’s people. Bit like theyre all Matthew’s friends at the housewarming …)

I did slightly have to laugh at the climax to this volume, where Robin’s abduction is essentially just another way of explaining all the plot points to the reader. Fun though!

I think it would be hard for Robin to build or nurture new friendships when she can't talk about the details of her work and works long and irregular hours. Work takes up so much of her emotional bandwidth, there isn't much left.
I think a theme that will come out more is Murphy's sense that she and Strike are out to show him and the police up as incompetent. This really didn't get resolved and is going to fester.

Agree with Peanut galleries. I am not sure I’d get on with Robin. What does she talk about outwith her work? I have always had a lot of hobbies and her workaholicness is boring. I think because she is pretty and “nice” we are meant to ignore that. She goes for boring but handsome men too. I’m not sure about her as a detective. Her emotional intelligence is awful.

At least Strike who knows he doesn’t want a suburban life chooses women who are lively not trying to get him to settle down if bonkers. Robin chooses men who want a housewife then wonders why she feels trapped when she never forcefully tells them she’s not wanting that

With Robin I think being highly competent at work whilst being a mess in her personal life isn’t too hard to believe. Neither is repeating negative patterns in relationships. Also on the surface Murphy seems to be a better match than Matthew. They met on the job and he’s a policeman who should understand the requirements of her profession. They also both want commitment but just have different ideas about what that looks like.

I wouldn’t say she lacked emotional intelligence so much as that she can’t acknowledge her own emotions. Her ability to maintain a cover and get strangers talking even from day one with no training (eg in the dress shop in Cuckoo Calling) suggests she’s excellent at this.

Heavens - which bit of my post were you agreeing with @2Rebecca?😂 I definitely don’t find her boring or lacking emotional intelligence. To me she lives with impossible tension, simultaneously trying to hold on to familial security and find a place of safety through meeting all the expectations of her clan and community, whilst at the same time knowing she’ll never recover and find her true self in the world unless she fights through to a place of real strength, which is something only her job can give her.

(At times I slightly despise myself for being lured into reading about yet another young, beautiful, well brought up woman - but the fact is, she wouldn’t face the same dilemmas and stresses if she were not all those things. If the attack that ended her university career had occurred when she was in her fifties, there would be no men pressuring her to freeze her eggs, and her mother wouldn’t be disapprovingly pushing her towards a picket fenced future.)

Ooh yeah! I'd actually forgotten the entire dog fighting sub plot. Too much book, too little brain.

Is this one of you? I got total Robin vibes

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/relationships/5418926-boyfriend-wants-to-buy-a-together-after-only-a-year

(Fascinating to see the responses - if only Robin was on MN!)

At least that poster is actually thinking about things 😂

On my second listen. I feel like Robin's brother Martin has been given quite a bit of a back story in this one. So my prediction for the next book is that Robin will need to do something to get him out of trouble of some kind, assisted by Strike.

Perhaps revealing something about Linda's past that helps Robin understand her perspective (JKR did this brilliantly with Lucy) and will allow her family to properly understand why she does what she does - with the bonus that they stop hating Strike.

I am fascinated by how much of all this she plotted out from the beginning. There are so many little details from favourite bands to family connections that weave it all together.

I’ve tried to resist it for a few weeks but I’ve just started from the cuckoo’s calling on audible again.
should see me through til December

Ooh strike’s accent is different!

Yes me too and it's well weird 🤣

I love Robert Glenister's narration, but he's absolutely shocking at accents, they are barely consistent in one conversation, let alone between books. 😄

I also don’t like his Robin voice. He makes her sound quite simpering.

Desperate to hear a sample now 😂

I found one on the Galbraith Facebook page. I like his reading of the narrative, and in the clip he was reading dialogue with Ramsay, the owner of the silver shop, and I thought he did a great job of him. But I couldn't be doing with his Strike. He sounds really growly and grumpy and effortfully West Country 😬

I know it's so odd isn't it. Also from memory Robin doesn't get a Yorkshire accent until Lethal White!!

@FiveBarGate I thought these exact things after reading THM!

Not sure, I think we just get snippets of the characters families. I think Martin was just included to have someone other than Strike or Murphy rescue her from the attacker in the car park, and to have someone else in Robin's circle having a baby.

I'm also not sure what else there is to know about Linda's background that would help Robin to understand her actions and behaviour other than what we already know, she has a daughter who suffered a violent rape as a teenager, who now has a job that has seen her seriously injured and put in danger multiple times. Linda was very supportive of her and liked Strike before the attack and subsequent firing in Career of Evil. I think what will hopefully help her heal her relationship with her mother is working on herself through therapy to enable her to have more honest conversations with people, including her mother.